| 1. |
- Black, Melissa H., et al.
(author)
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Multi-informant International Perspectives on the Facilitators and Barriers to Employment for Autistic Adults
- 2020
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In: Autism Research. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 13:7, s. 1195-1214
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Employment rates for autistic individuals are poor, even compared to those from other disability groups. Internationally, there remains limited understanding of the factors influencing employment across the stages of preparing for, gaining, and maintaining employment. This is the third in a series of studies conducted as part of an International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) policy brief intended to improve employment outcomes for autistic individuals. A multi-informant international survey with five key stakeholder groups, including autistic individuals, their families, employers, service providers, and researchers, was undertaken in Australia, Sweden, and the United States to understand the facilitators and barriers to employment for autistic adults. A total of 687 individuals participated, including autistic individuals (n = 246), family members (n = 233), employers (n = 35), clinicians/service providers (n = 123), and researchers (n = 50). Perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to employment differed significantly across both key stakeholder groups and countries, however, ensuring a good job match and focusing on strengths were identified by all groups as important for success. Key barriers to employment included stigma, a lack of understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and communication difficulties. Results suggest that a holistic approach to employment for autistic individuals is required, aimed at facilitating communication between key stakeholders, addressing attitudes and understanding of ASD in the workplace, using strength-based approaches and providing early work experience. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic individuals experience significant difficulty getting and keeping a job. This article presents a survey study involving autistic individuals, their families, employers, service providers and researchers in Australia, Sweden, and the United States to understand their perspectives on the factors that support or act as barriers to employment. While perspectives varied across key stakeholders, strategies such as using a holistic approach, targeting workplace attitudes and understanding, focusing on strengths, and providing early work experience are important for success.
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| 3. |
- Clements, C. C., et al.
(author)
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DAS-IICognitive Profiles Are Not Diagnostically Meaningful For Autism: AROCAnalysis
- 2020
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In: Autism Research. - : Wiley. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 13:12, s. 2143-2154
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Intelligence assessment is an integral part of a comprehensive autism evaluation. Many past studies have described a cognitive profile of autistic individuals characterized by higher nonverbal than verbal IQ scores. The diagnostic utility of this profile, however, remains unknown. We leveraged receiver operating characteristic methods to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) of three different IQ profiles in a large sample of children who have an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (N= 1,228, Simons Simplex Collection) who completed the Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition (DAS-II), School Age compared to the normative sample provided by the DAS-II publisher (N= 2,200). The frequently discussed nonverbal > verbal IQ profile performed near chance at distinguishing ASD from normative individuals (AUC: 0.54, 95% CI [0.52-0.56]), and performed significantly worse for females than males (AUC: females: 0.46 [0.41-0.52]; males: 0.55 [0.53-0.58]). All cognitive profiles showed AUC < 0.56. We conclude that while significant differences between verbal and nonverbal IQ scores exist at the group level, these differences are small in an absolute sense and not meaningful at an individual level. We do not recommend using cognitive profiles to aid in autism diagnostic decision-making. Lay Summary Some researchers and clinicians have reported an "autistic cognitive profile" of higher nonverbal intelligence than verbal intelligence. In an analysis of over 1,000 autistic children, we found that thegroup'saverage nonverbal intelligence is usually higher than their verbal intelligence. However, this pattern should not be used by clinicians to make anindividualdiagnosis of autism because our results show it is not helpful nor accurate.
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| 5. |
- Kim, Jong Yeob, et al.
(author)
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Association between autism spectrum disorder and inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- 2022
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In: Autism Research. - : WILEY. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 15:2, s. 340-352
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are frequently diagnosed with co-occurring medical conditions including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To investigate the association, we conducted a systematic review registered in PROSPERO (ID:CRD42021236263) with a random-effects meta-analysis. We searched PubMed, Embase, and PsycInfo (last search on January 25, 2021), and manually searched relevant publications. We included observational studies measuring the association between ASD and IBD. The primary outcome was the association (odds ratio, OR) between ASD and later development of IBD. Sensitivity analyses were conducted by quality, confounding adjustment, and study design. We performed meta-regression analyses and assessed heterogeneity, publication bias, and quality of studies with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Overall, we included six studies consisting of eight datasets, including over 11 million participants. We found that ASD was significantly associated with subsequent incident IBD (any IBD, OR = 1.66, 95% confidence interval[CI] = 1.25-2.21, p < 0.001; ulcerative colitis, OR = 1.91, 95%CI = 1.41-2.6, p < 0.001; Crohns disease, OR = 1.47, 95%CI = 1.15-1.88, p = 0.002). ASD and IBD were also associated regardless of temporal sequence of diagnosis (any IBD, OR = 1.57, 95%CI = 1.28-1.93, p < 0.001; ulcerative colitis, OR = 1.7, 95%CI = 1.36-2.12, p < 0.001; Crohns disease, OR = 1.37, 95%CI = 1.12-1.69, p = 0.003). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the findings of the main analysis. Meta-regression did not identify any significant moderators. Publication bias was not detected. Quality was high in four datasets and medium in four. In conclusion, our findings highlight the need to screen for IBD in individuals with ASD, and future research should identify who, among those with ASD, has the highest risk of IBD, and elucidate the shared biological mechanisms between ASD and IBD.
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| 6. |
- Li, Danyang, et al.
(author)
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Rare variants in the outcome of social skills group training for autism
- 2022
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In: Autism Research. - : Wiley. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 15:3, s. 434-446
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Exome sequencing has been proposed as the first-tier genetic testing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we performed exome sequencing in autistic individuals with average to high intellectual abilities (N = 207) to identify molecular diagnoses and genetic modifiers of intervention outcomes of social skills group training (SSGT) or standard care. We prioritized variants of clinical significance (VCS), variants of uncertain significance (VUS) and generated a pilot scheme to calculate genetic scores of rare and common variants in ASD-related gene pathways. Mixed linear models were used to test the association between the carrier status of VCS/VUS or the genetic scores with intervention outcomes measured by the social responsiveness scale. Additionally, we combined behavioral and genetic features using a machine learning (ML) model to predict the individual response. We showed a rate of 4.4% and 11.3% of VCS and VUS in the cohort, respectively. Individuals with VCS or VUS had improved significantly less after standard care than non-carriers at post-intervention (β = 9.35; p = 0.036), while no such association was observed for SSGT (β = −2.50; p = 0.65). Higher rare variant genetic scores for synaptic transmission and regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II were separately associated with less beneficial (β = 8.30, p = 0.0044) or more beneficial (β = −6.79, p = 0.014) effects after SSGT compared with standard care at follow-up, respectively. Our ML model showed the importance of rare variants for outcome prediction. Further studies are needed to understand genetic predisposition to intervention outcomes in ASD.
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| 7. |
- Mohammad, Salahuddin, et al.
(author)
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Well-being spectrum traits are associated with polygenic scores for autism
- 2023
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In: Autism Research. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 16:10, s. 1891-1902
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to experience lower well-being as demonstrated mostly for children and adolescents in epidemiological studies. A further investigation of inclusive well-being, in terms of five well-being spectrum (5-WBS) traits including neuroticism, depression, loneliness, life satisfaction, and positive affect, among adults with ASD may deepen our understanding of their well-being, and lead to the possibility to further modify societal supportive mechanisms for individuals with ASD. This study aims to investigate if a genetic predisposition for ASD is associated with 5-WBS traits using polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis. PRS for ASD were calculated based on the latest genome-wide association study of ASD by the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (18,381 cases, 27,969 controls) and were created in the independent cohort UK Biobank. Regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between ASD PRS and 5-WBS traits in the UK Biobank population including 337,423 individuals. ASD PRS were significantly associated with all 5-WBS traits, showing a positive association with the negative WBS traits, neuroticism (max R2 = 0.04%, p < 1 × 10−4), depression (max R2 = 0.06%, p < 1 × 10−4), loneliness (max R2 = 0.04%, p < 1 × 10−4), and a negative association with the positive WBS traits, life satisfaction (max R2 = 0.08%, p < 1 × 10−4), positive affect (max R2 = 0.10%, p < 1 × 10−4). The findings suggest that adults carrying a high load of risk single nucleotide peptides (SNPs) for ASD are more likely to report decreased well-being. The study demonstrates a considerable connection between susceptibility to ASD, its underlying genetic etiology and well-being.
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| 9. |
- Piatti, Alessandra, et al.
(author)
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Neural correlates of response to joint attention in 2-to-5-year-olds in relation to ASD and social-communicative abilities: An fNIRS and behavioral study
- 2024
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In: Autism Research. - : WILEY. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with life-long challenges with social cognition, and one of its earliest and most common manifestations is atypical joint attention, which is a pivotal skill in social-cognitive and linguistic development. Early interventions for ASD children often focus on training initiation of joint attention (IJA) and response to joint attention bids (RJA), which are important for social communication and cognition. Here, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy and behavioral measures to test typically developing (TD, n = 17) and ASD children (n = 18), to address the relationship between the neural correlates of RJA and social-communicative behavior. Group-level differences were present for RJA-specific activation over right temporal sites, where TD children showed higher levels of activation during RJA than ASD children, whereas the two groups did not differ in the control condition. Correlations between neural activation and behavioral traits suggest that, in ASD children, neural activation during RJA is related to the frequency of RJA behavior when the former is measured over left temporal sites, and to social affect symptoms when considered for right temporal sites. Possible implications of the evidenced correlations are discussed.
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